Weight Loss Drug Lawsuit - Wagstaff & Cartmell

Weight loss drugs have soared in popularity as a means of treating obesity and type 2 diabetes. However, these medications are not without certain risks. Users have reported various side effects and injuries, some of which are serious. These complications, in turn, have led to hospitalization and medical bills, missed time from work, and other losses.

If you or a loved one were injured after using a popular weight loss medication, you owe it to yourself to explore your legal options. Wagstaff & Cartmell can help. Our weight loss and diabetes drug lawsuit lawyer can review your case and discuss your eligibility for monetary compensation.

What to Know About Diabetes Medications

GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) is a naturally occurring hormone that plays an important role in regulating an individual’s blood sugar, appetite, and digestion. It does the following:

Blocks the secretion of a hormone known as glucagon, which raises blood sugar
Increases feelings of satiety, or fullness, after eating
Slows the process by which the stomach empties
Causes the pancreas to produce insulin

Popular diabetes drugs are also known as GLP-1 agonists, or simply GLP-1s. These drugs attach to receptors in the brain and mimic GLP-1 by:

Slowing the rate at which food exits the stomach
Reducing an individual’s appetite
Slightly boosting metabolism, which can help a person burn more calories while resting

A patient who takes GLP-1 medication may feel less hungry, have fewer spikes in blood sugar, and feel fuller after a meal. These effects help patients combat obesity and treat diabetes. Most GLP-1s are injectable, although some of them come in pill form.

What Are the Most Popular Weight Loss Drugs Used to Treat Type 2 Diabetes?

Now more than ever, patients who are looking to more easily manage their diabetes and obesity have numerous options. These are the most common names under which GLP-1s are marketed to patients:

Brand name	Generic name
Ozempic	Semaglutide
Wegovy	Semaglutide
Rybelsus	Semaglutide
Trulicity	Dulaglutide
Byetta	Exenatide
Bydureon BCise	Exenatide
Victoza	Liraglutide
Saxenda	Liraglutide
Mounjaro	Tirzepatide
Zepbound	Tirzepatide

These are not necessarily the only drugs like these available on the market, but they are among the most popular ones. Some of the names of manufacturers you may see associated with your weight loss drug include:

Novo Nordisk
Eli Lilly
Amylin Pharmaceuticals
AstraZeneca (AZ)

Why Are Patients Filing Lawsuits?

Ozempic, Wegovy, and Trulicity, among other weight loss medications, were marketed to patients with the promise of helping them treat and manage their obesity and type 2 diabetes. And while these drugs have proven to be effective, they come with a major downside: severe side effects and injuries.

The problem is that, according to these patients, drug manufacturers did not always properly disclose the risks associated with their products. Although drug makers were well aware of the side effects and injuries, they did not properly warn patients of them. Many patients, therefore, took a highly celebrated medication without fully understanding how it could (and in many cases did) harm them.

Because of the harm that many patients have suffered, they have incurred various losses, including medical bills to treat health complications, lost income, decreased earning capacity, and more. They have filed dangerous drug lawsuits to try to seek compensation for legal damages.

What Are the Side Effects of Weight Loss Drugs?

Every weight loss medication is different, and there is certainly no shortage of drugs available to patients. Each patient’s experience while using a particular medication will vary according to their unique physical and medical characteristics.

So far, the most commonly reported side effects associated with GLP-1s concern the gastrointestinal system (the stomach and related organs concerned with digestion) as well as the eyes. Problems with the cardiovascular system, particularly arteries and veins, have also been reported in some patients. This is a list of the most serious side effects that weight loss medication patients may experience:

Nausea
Vomiting
Diarrhea
Constipation
Bowel obstruction
Abdominal pain
Stomach paralysis (gastroparesis)
Esophageal injury
Pancreatitis
Pancreatic cancer
Gallbladder injury
Vision changes, such as blindness
NAION (Non-Arteritic Ischemic Optic Neuropathy) vision loss
Deep vein thrombosis and related injuries, including death
Intraoperative pulmonary aspiration

Many of these side effects require extensive hospitalization, surgery, and repeat visits to the doctor or to specialists. Some of them, like cancer, can require extensive treatments of several months or more than a year. Patients often need other medications to reverse the effects of these drugs. Certain side effects can even cause death.

The above may not be the only side effects that result from weight loss medications. If you have experienced any of these, or something else that is unusual, be sure you see a doctor right away and follow their recommended treatment regimen. Proper medical attention is vital to helping ensure that the above side effects do not develop into more dangerous complications.

Details of the Legal Allegations

Patients who have been harmed by GLP-1 weight loss medications have made several serious allegations against the companies that manufacture and sell these drugs. While the allegations of every drug lawsuit are different, some of the more common claims are that:

The drug makers knew about the side effects: Evidence indicates that drug manufacturers either were fully aware of the risks associated with their medications or that they reasonably should have known about them. Companies cannot simply turn a blind eye to the dangers of their products, and this obligation extends to drug makers.
The drug makers failed to warn patients: Lawsuits have claimed that drug manufacturers either did not warn of the dangerous side effects of their products or failed to provide adequate warnings. This negligent failure to warn left patients unable to properly understand the risks of these drugs and make an informed decision about whether to use them.
The drug makers used deceptive marketing: Patients also allege that the drug manufacturers intentionally misled prospective customers through their advertising. More specifically, the marketing campaigns overstated the benefits while downplaying or ignoring the risks. The effect of this was to make these weight loss medications appear better than they were, enticing patients.

Legal Theories to Hold Drug Makers Accountable

There are various potential legal theories that plaintiffs can put forth to seek compensation for their injuries. Some plaintiffs can argue more than one theory in their dangerous drug lawsuit. The arguments that you will make will depend on the specific facts of your drug injury case, so be sure to consult an experienced attorney.

What follows are examples of legal theories that plaintiffs can potentially use:

Product Liability

Product liability is a category of personal injury that pertains to dangerous and defective consumer products, which includes medications. The purpose of a product liability lawsuit is to hold drug manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others responsible for injuries caused by these drugs.

Plaintiffs who file product liability lawsuits over these drugs make one of the following three claims:

Design defect: A drug can be poorly designed, meaning the way in which its components are put together is inherently unsafe. For instance, a specific chemical used in the drug may cause serious side effects.
Manufacturing defect: Even if a drug is safely designed, something could occur during the manufacturing process that makes it unsafe. For example, the facility in which the drug is made could have problems with sanitation or might accidentally mix drugs.
Failure to warn: A drug that is properly designed and manufactured can still come with serious side effects, like the ones listed above. The drug maker and other liable parties will have a duty to include appropriate warning labels and instructions for patients. A failure to warn lacks this information and could cause major injury.

Medical Malpractice

When liability centers on healthcare professionals and the role they play in patient care, the victim could have the right to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. With respect to GLP-1 drugs, liability may arise because the prescribing doctor did not properly advise the patient of the risks associated with the drug. Another scenario is that, given the patient’s health condition and background, they were not a good candidate for the drug and should not have had it prescribed to them. Still another situation is one in which the professional overstated the benefits of the medication.

Medical malpractice can involve doctors, nurses, hospitals, pharmacists, and other individuals and entities in the health industry. There is often overlap between the role that these professionals play and product liability claims that implicate drug makers and others.

Consumer Protection

There are both state and federal consumer protection laws, which are designed to protect people from deceptive, fraudulent, and unfair business practices. These are often relevant to these drugs due to how these products are advertised. If a drug maker was inaccurate or misleading in the way in which it marketed its medication, and someone is injured as a result, they could have a viable consumer protection claim.

Personal Injury Law

Broadly speaking, personal injury concerns negligence. A company that acts negligently or fails to act when they have a duty to do so could be held liable for any resulting harm. Product liability falls under the umbrella of personal injury law in most cases.

Personal injury is focused on restoring the injured party, as much as possible, to the position they were in before getting injured. This is done by filing a dangerous drug lawsuit and seeking compensation, which is known as damages.

Strict Liability

In some jurisdictions, injured weight loss patients need only to prove that the drug caused them injury. This means no proof of negligence is required. Strict liability is a key legal theory in many drug injury claims.

Possible Compensation Available to Victims

Patients who have suffered harm from GLP 1 and other similar drugs may incur various losses, for which they can file a lawsuit. Depending on the unique facts of your case and the jurisdiction in which you file, you may be able to ask for compensation to cover:

Medical expenses: This includes past, current, and reasonably estimated future medical expenses and related expenses you may incur due to your injury. Patients often run up high medical costs for hospitalization, rehabilitation, and prescription drugs to treat their injuries.
Lost wages: If you have suffered health injuries that prevent you from working, or from working at your former capacity, you can seek compensation for the income that you will lose as a result. This includes long-term missed income, bonuses, and benefits like retirement.
Non-economic damages: Whereas medical expenses and lost wages are considered economic damages (their values are relatively easy to calculate), certain losses are more subjective in nature. These non-economic damages include pain and suffering, loss of consortium, decreased quality of life, and more.
Punitive damages: In some cases, the negligent actions that caused the patient’s injuries are so extreme that it is appropriate for the court to award punitive damages. As the term “punitive” implies, these are intended to punish the misconduct and deter future incidents of it. Your attorney can advise as to whether these damages are available in your case.

Steps You Should Take if You’ve Been Injured

If you were injured because of one of these medications, it is important that you do not delay taking legal action. You don’t have an unlimited amount of time to file a lawsuit. Moreover, the longer you wait to file, the more difficult it will be to collect the evidence you need to prove liability and the value of your damages. We advise victims to do the following:

Preserve evidence related to the drug: Keep receipts and other proof of purchase concerning the medication. Preserve the original packaging the drug came in, along with the instructions and other documents. Also, keep any copies of your prescriptions.
Gather your medical records: You should collect any medical records about the medication, as well as any injuries or adverse side effects you suffered. This includes, but is not limited to, doctors’ notes, hospital records, medical costs, and prescriptions for other medications to treat the side effects.
Keep personal notes: Start keeping a diary of any complications, pain, and problems you experience because of the weight loss drug that you took. Note how your injuries have affected your daily life. Err on the side of more detail rather than less. Also include the names of any eyewitnesses who can corroborate what you write.
Limit what you say: It’s a good idea to limit what you say to others about your injuries, especially on social media. As a general matter, you should report your side effects to your doctor to ensure you receive proper medical attention. But you should probably talk to a lawyer before reaching out to the manufacturer of your drug. If you are not sure what to say or not, or how it might affect your legal rights, give us a call.
Consult an attorney: You should talk to a lawyer who has experience dealing with weight loss and diabetes drug lawsuits. Your attorney can advise you on the proper steps to take and how you can file a claim for monetary damages.

Litigation Options for Your Weight Loss Drug Lawsuit

There are numerous filed medication lawsuits and others that are still pending across the country. They will usually proceed in one of three ways:

Individual lawsuit: Your attorney may file a lawsuit against the responsible parties and seek damages this way. For example, a Byetta weight loss drug lawsuit may simply be a standalone case. This is common if your claim raises novel legal issues or damages, or if the defendant in question has yet to be sued (or sued as often) as other defendants.
Multidistrict litigation (MDL): When large numbers of plaintiffs suffer the same type of harm at the hands of the same parties, their claims can be consolidated into an MDL. MDL is useful for streamlining discovery, motions, and other pretrial procedures.
Class action lawsuit: A class action lawsuit for weight loss drugs is also possible. Class actions are similar to MDL, with one major difference being that all claims are rolled into one with a single set of legal counsel and class representatives. With MDL, on the other hand, each plaintiff retains their own attorney, and each individual’s claim (including the decision of whether to settle) remains distinct.

How your case will move forward will depend heavily on the individual facts of your weight loss drug injury as well as the prevailing legal climate. If your claim is similar to others, it might be joined with those claims through MDL. This is already occurring with respect to medication lawsuits. Class action is also possible, although as of this writing, there are no pending class action lawsuits.

One thing that should be emphasized is that victims do not have an unlimited amount of time to file a lawsuit. A deadline, known as the statute of limitations, will apply. Lawsuits must be filed by the applicable deadline, or the plaintiff/victim will forever lose their right to seek maximum compensation. The actual statute of limitations will vary from one claim to another, so talk to an experienced attorney at your earliest convenience.

How We Help Weight Loss Drug Victims

Retaining an experienced drug injury attorney is a strong step towards claiming the compensation that you need to recover. When a client hires Wagstaff & Cartmell to represent them, we immediately get to work by:

Investigating Your Claim

One of the first things we do is conduct a thorough investigation of our client’s factual claims regarding the medication. At this point, the objective is to establish the basic facts: which drug caused the injury, what the nature of the injury is, and who may be held responsible for causing it. We ascertain the identities of all potentially liable parties, determine key dates, and begin putting together a factual narrative of what happened.

Obtaining Evidence

Prior to filing a lawsuit, we can start gathering and taking a look at the preliminary evidence. This step will help us better understand the strength of your claim and allow us to develop a comprehensive legal strategy that will shape the rest of your case. You should present the evidence you currently have in your possession (such as the items mentioned above) to your attorney and answer your attorney’s questions so they can make the strongest possible claim.

Calculating Your Losses

The initial evidence can also help us determine the value of your losses. We can review your medical expenses, lost wages, and the likely impact of the medication injury on your future. We may also consult expert witnesses at this stage. These are individuals who have technical or specialized knowledge, like medical experts who understand the nature of drug injuries. Their input can help us calculate your damages.

Settlement Negotiations

Once your attorney understands the potential value of your case, it’s time to attempt a settlement with the responsible parties by sending them a demand letter. More formal settlement negotiations often take place through mediation. A settlement can avoid the time and hassle of a lawsuit, which can help you win fair compensation early. Negotiations also allow your attorney to better gauge the strengths and weaknesses of your claim and the defendants’ arguments.

Filing the Lawsuit

If your claim does not settle early, or you are approaching the deadline to file (meaning, the statute of limitations is about to run), your lawyer may file a lawsuit. This preserves your legal claim and sets into motion various pre-trial proceedings, such as the filing of motions and court hearings to resolve them.

Conducting Discovery

One of the most important pre-trial procedures is discovery. This is the formal request and exchange of relevant documents and information between the parties to a lawsuit. Discovery is generally permitted once a lawsuit is filed and served on all defendants. It can take a substantial amount of time, and you should expect to receive discovery requests to which you must respond. See below for more information.

Additional Settlement Negotiations

By now, you may have named additional parties as defendants or obtained more evidence through discovery. This may give you better leverage in attempting to settle the case. Most lawyers would prefer a settlement, if possible, because it saves time and money all around. But you should understand that if your lawsuit settles, you won’t get another chance to ask for more compensation later or take your case to trial. So be sure you hire experienced legal counsel.

Trial

If a settlement cannot be reached, a trial date will be set. At trial, your lawyer will have the opportunity to present your claims along with the evidence that supports it. You and others will give testimony in court, and witnesses and parties on both sides can be cross-examined as well. A judge or jury will decide the merits of your case, whether to award you compensation for your losses, and how much.

Post-Judgment Collection

Once the court decides its award, you can collect on the judgment. Certain parties, like doctors, will be paid first, and your attorney will also receive a percentage of your judgment. If a defendant does not timely pay, contempt proceedings can be used to enforce the judgment.

Appeal

Either party is entitled to appeal the trial court’s decision if they can articulate legal or procedural errors or other problems that occurred during the trial. Simply losing a trial does not allow a party to appeal the court’s decision. There is only a limited amount of time to file an appeal.

Discovery Methods the Law Firm You Hire May Use

Discovery is an important and necessary process in any weight loss drug lawsuit. Lawyers have various discovery tools at their disposal, including:

Interrogatories: These are written questions that ask a party to provide more information, such as the identity of a specific corporate entity responsible for marketing a drug or the location of documents and other tangible evidence. There are usually limits to the number of interrogatories a party can ask.
Requests for documents: Your lawyer can send requests for various documents related to your claim, such as internal marketing and correspondence, lab test results for the medication, and more. The answers to the interrogatories are often useful in helping your lawyer know which documents to request.
Requests for admission: A request for admission is a statement given to another party, to which they respond by admitting, denying, or claiming they do not know the answer. The primary purpose of a request for admission is to determine which issues are in dispute between the parties and which are not, to better use litigation resources.
Depositions: A deposition is a procedure in which a party or witness provides out-of-court testimony concerning the issues in question. Depositions are often video recorded, and any answers given are done so under oath. Lawyers use depositions to gather evidence, assess the strengths and weaknesses of various legal claims and arguments, and prepare for trial.

Lawyers who conduct discovery must ensure that their requests and questions are narrowly tailored and relevant to the health issues in dispute. Overly broad, vague, or irrelevant requests will invite objections from opposing counsel. Your lawyer will help you respond to any requests you receive or make objections as appropriate.

When a party objects to a request, a hearing is sometimes necessary to determine whether the request is valid, whether it should be more narrowly written, or whether other conditions should attach to it. Hearings are sometimes also necessary to compel a party to turn over information and records. You should have knowledgeable legal counsel to manage this important stage of your lawsuit.

What Is Your GLP 1 Claim Worth?

Whether your case settles out of court, the value of your claim will depend on various factors. Each of these varies from one weight loss drug injury patient to another, so be sure to discuss the following with your attorney:

How serious your injuries are: The severity of your injuries and the impact they have on your health, ability to work, and quality of life are perhaps the most important factors.
The strength of your evidence: Your ability to present a compelling claim, backed by strong evidence, will affect everything from settlement negotiations to jury deliberations.
The jurisdiction of your case: Compensation can vary greatly from one jurisdiction to another, so the state and court in which you file will prove important.
Other cases and claimants: Drug makers and other liable parties often determine the merits of an individual case by considering how many other cases and claimants there are, along with their injuries and any compensation they have received.
The quality of legal counsel: The law firm you hire to represent you, and the firms that the defendants will hire, can impact settlement discussions and the trial as well.
Settlement versus trial: Whether your case settles out of court or goes to trial can also shape the amount of compensation you receive, and this, in turn, hinges on the aptitudes and attitudes of the respective legal counsel.

The Role of Expert Witnesses in Diabetes Medication Cases

The strength of a plaintiff’s lawsuit often turns on the reliability and credibility of expert witness testimony. Expert witnesses can testify about many complex subjects to help judges and juries better understand the facts and health issues at stake in a lawsuit.

Our firm has a trusted network of expert witnesses who provide pre-trial and trial testimony concerning various important subjects. These are some examples of the experts who may help bolster your claims:

Pharmacologists: This type of expert can explain how the weight loss drug works and its impact on the body. For example, a pha r macologist can discuss the long-term physiological impacts of a GLP-1.
Other medical experts: Other experts can explain everything from the sufficiency of safety data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and any future treatments you will likely need in light of your injuries.
Vocational experts: These individuals explain how a drug injury affects a patient’s long-term earning capacity and employability. They answer the question of how a drug injury impacts the victim’s ability to earn a living, now and in the future.

Are You Eligible to File a Claim Against a Drug Manufacturer for a Diabetes Drug?

If you were injured by a weight loss drug, we want to hear from you. These are some basic qualification criteria that you should consider if you wish to hold the drug manufacturer or another party liable for your injuries:

Did you use the product as prescribed? In other words, were you prescribed Ozempic or another drug for weight loss or diabetes management, and did you use the product according to the medication’s instructions and/or those of your healthcare provider?
Did you suffer side effects or injuries? We especially want to hear from any patients who developed NAION or otherwise suffered vision loss. However, we are also interested in potentially representing someone who experienced other side effects or injuries like the ones listed above.
Did the side effects or injuries affect you financially or otherwise? We want to know how the medication affected you in terms of medical expenses, your ability to work, and your overall quality of life.
Are you within the statute of limitations? Remember, you mustn’t wait until the statute of limitations expires in your case. Those who take early legal action are more likely to receive fair compensation for their injuries.

Contact Wagstaff & Cartmell for a Free Consultation About Your Weight Loss Drug Injury

Our firm is currently in the early stages of representing clients who have suffered harm from Ozempic, Wegovy, and other weight loss drugs in their fight to pursue compensation. We are happy to answer any questions or concerns you have and to give you additional information about your legal options.

To get started or to learn more about weight loss drug injury lawsuits, give us a call or complete our online contact form today. Our attorneys offer free consultations.